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Mind and Body Self-Care
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The information on this website is designed to offer self-care tips and recommendations based on evidence-based research and literature from professionals in each field. It is not intended to diagnose or treat any specific medical condition. Please consult with your healthcare provider before making any health-related decisions.
I started putting this plan together just for my own home. But once I had it down on paper, it seemed wrong to keep it on my own shelf, so I decided to share it with you too. Either it helps, you use it, or it informs your own plan. I am not an expert and this is just for educational purposes only and is simple a recommendation for your planning considerations. But first, before we dive into the plan I’ll share what informed my development of this GO Plan.
The first thing on my mind was a memory. About forty years ago, when I was nine, a fire took our house in the middle of summer. It moved so fast that all I had left to my name were the cutoff Levi shorts I was wearing, no shirt, no shoes, no socks, normal summer attire. My father ran out in his socks; there wasn’t even time for his boots. What I remember most wasn’t the things you can buy again. It was the photo albums, the souvenirs, and the mementos my parents had collected over the years, and his guns, a great many of them, all gone. I think about that fire now because I live in Utah, where fires are popping up everywhere and we live, against a mountain that drought has turned into a hillside of fuel. I keep asking the question every family should ask before the smoke is in the air: if we had to leave right now, what would we grab?
The second was how I learned to live ready. About eight years ago, as the Battalion Executive Officer in the 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division, with the duty serving as our Nation’s Global Response Force, our bags stayed packed and staged at all times, ready for the moment the President picked up the red phone. Readiness wasn’t a scramble; it was a habit built in advance, so that when the call came there was nothing left to decide.
The third was what my family lived through. Over nine years at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, we weathered our share of flooding and hurricanes, a different climate, a different disaster, the same lesson: the families who come through it well are the ones who prepared before they had to.
Between the experience of the past, military training in support of DHS and FEMA response-planning (referred as Defense Support of Civil Authorities), this is the guide takes some of that experience to provide some planning considerations to think about. Use it to prepare now — while the sky is still clear and there is time to think.
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Before you pack a single box, rehearse. A rock drill is something I became proficient at in military planning and combat operations: you walk the whole operation through step by step — shadow-boxing the event — to surface the risks, the vulnerabilities, and the resources you hadn’t planned for. We’d picture the weather, the terrain, and how the enemy might respond, then build in controls and update the plan before it ever happened. Do the same with your evacuation: run the two walk-throughs below, write the story as you go, and hunt for the gaps and vulnerabilities.
Pick one weekday and one weekend day and play the whole day out in your mind, hour by hour. What do you touch, use, and depend on? As the day unfolds, the things you’d truly miss become obvious. Then fast-forward 30–40 years: what would you want your kids or grandkids to still be able to see, hold, and share? Those answers point straight at what belongs in your tote.
Add friction as you go: what if it’s raining? What if someone gets sick? Each scenario surfaces another item you’d need.
Now rehearse leaving. The order comes to go — what is your pack-out plan, and in what order do you load the vehicle so everything fits, like a well-packed set of Legos? Who does what? Assign responsibility to members of your fire team, squad, family, who is doing what, grabbing what, turning off power, water, assign tasks and responsibilities. Play the story in your mind. Picture pulling away from the house, then keep playing it forward: where do you go, and what do you need along the way?
Then test it: the car breaks down, you catch a flat, the only nearby hotels won’t take pets. Every snag you hit on paper is one you won’t hit for real.
Most emergencies that force a family out arrive with little warning. The biggest predictor of how calmly a household evacuates isn’t how athletic or wealthy they are — it’s whether the important things were already packed before the alarm sounded. This guide rests on three ideas.
The same kit serves a wildfire out West, a hurricane on the coast, a flood in the Southeast, or an earthquake anywhere. The threat changes; what you carry barely does.
You don’t keep everything packed year-round. You pack ahead of your local risk window — fire, flood, hurricane season — then return things to their shelves once the danger clearly passes.
Public shelters fill quickly and resources inside are limited. The more complete your own kit, the more comfortable and independent your family will be wherever you land.
Pack ahead of your region’s risk window rather than waiting for a warning. Check your local emergency-management office for exact dates, since seasons shift with drought, snowpack, and storms.
| Hazard | Typical high-risk window | What shifts the dates |
|---|---|---|
| Wildfire | Late spring through fall; longer in drought years | Drought, heat, high winds, low humidity |
| Hurricane / tropical storm | Roughly June–November (Atlantic) | Named-storm forecasts, coastal warnings |
| River / flash flooding | Spring snowmelt and heavy-rain seasons | Saturated ground, rapid melt, storm bands |
| Tornado | Spring and early summer in many regions | Severe-storm outlooks |
| Earthquake | No season — keep a baseline kit all year | Not predictable; readiness is constant |
Load the rollaway tote, pack each person’s go-bag, write or update your master list and tape it to the tote lid, and confirm your destinations and routes are current.
When the season ends, return the tote’s contents to their shelves, move seasonal clothing back into rotation, and refresh anything that expired — food, water, and medications especially. It can feel tedious to live for months with your photo albums in a bin by the door, but that mild inconvenience is the whole point: when it matters, everything is already in one place.
Think of your kit in three layers, packed in the order you’d grab them if you only had minutes. And where are you putting them? I envision room in the bed of my truck, seats in the van laid down. Enough room for bags totes and enough seats for butts.
A large wheeled container for heavy and sentimental items that won’t fit in a backpack. It stays packed and staged all season.
The Five P’s isn’t my idea — it comes from the wildfire-preparedness world, where fire and emergency-management agencies have long used it as a quick evacuation memory aid. You’ll find it across the national Ready, Set, Go! program (run by the International Association of Fire Chiefs), Cal Fire’s Ready for Wildfire campaign, and many local fire departments and sheriff’s offices. No single person coined it; I’ve simply organized it into this system.
Each person gets a backpack, light enough to carry on foot. Pack the things you won’t reach for during the season — off-season clothes, spare shoes, duplicate toiletries, and items that are slow or costly to replace.
Some things can’t be pre-packed because you use them daily. Post this list by the door so one person can read it aloud while everyone sweeps the house.
If you return to a damaged home, the first days are about making it safe and salvaging what you can. Keep these in the tote or vehicle so you’re not scrambling when stores are closed or sold out.
Decide before you need it. In a real evacuation, options vanish fast — hotels fill, roads close, shelters reach capacity. Map several destinations now and rank them, so the decision in the moment is simply “go to option two.”
FEMA, the Red Cross, churches, and community groups open shelters during large disasters. They’re a genuine safety net — but space and resources are limited, privacy is minimal, and pets may not be allowed. Treat a shelter as a backup.
List several in advance, in different directions out of town, because the ones nearest the disaster fill first. Weigh distance and route, convenience to work and schools if displacement runs long, and pet policy — then book early.
Friends or family outside the danger zone are often the best option — more comfortable, lower cost, pet-friendly. Have that conversation now, not during the emergency, and confirm they’re far enough away to be unaffected by the same event.
Build a family emergency plan with at least two routes out of your neighborhood — the obvious road is often the one that’s blocked or jammed. Drive each route once so everyone knows it. I recall one hurricane in North Carolina, I had five route options to get to work or stores, but as the floods came in the roads washed out until all five where flooded out.
Pick one person far enough away to be unaffected. When local lines jam, a long-distance call or text often still goes through. Everyone checks in with that one contact, who relays each person’s status.
One right outside the home (a specific tree or the mailbox) for a fast house fire, and one farther away — outside the neighborhood — for when the whole area evacuates.
A printable, fill-in-the-blank PDF that walks through all three layers, with inventory tables and a grab-list you can complete and tape to your tote. Fill it on your device or print it.
Open & Download the PDFFree, up-to-date checklists and templates you can adapt. Always confirm current guidance with your local emergency-management office.
Self-Reliant Wellness • utah23.org
This guide is general preparedness information, not professional, legal, or insurance advice. Follow the instructions of local authorities during any emergency.
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